Circus family falsely accused of abuse and thrown in jail

In a special edition of 60 MINUTES Tara Brown reports on one of the worst miscarriages of justice imaginable a high-profile criminal investigation where not only were the failings of the police case inexplicable they caused catastrophic consequences for six innocent law-abiding Australians Members of the extended Cook family from the Blue Mountains west of Sydney ran a much-loved circus school but ended up in prison after being charged with 127 counts of monstrous child sexual abuse At the time of the arrests detectives were quick to publicise their success in identifying and stopping a depraved sex ring The only problem there wasn t a shred of credible evidence to back up the accusations Now having destroyed the lives of blameless people it might be expected that the New South Wales police would be big enough to apologise for their incompetence But they re not

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